This is the twenty-first lesson in our study of the Friulian language using the book Lis predicjis dal muini by Josef Marchet. To download the book and listen to the audio recordings, made available by the Societât Filologjiche Furlane, follow the links in Learn Friulian 1. The commentary below relates to the fourth paragraph of La statistiche, which begins with sposalizis vot and ends with ce muse che e à.
COMMENTARY ON THE FRIULIAN
La statistiche: paragraph 4, sentence 1.
Vocabulary: un sposalizi (marriage); vot (eight); trê (three); une fantate (girl); lâ a marît ({of a woman} to get married); fûr di (out{side} of); il paîs (village); cuatri (four); une foreste (woman from away); vignî (to come); stâ culì (to stay {live} here).
Vigji tells us that there were eight marriages in the past year: sposalizis vot. In the audio, we hear the speaker interpreting Vigji pronounce the word sposalizi as sposalissi, with the third of the four syllables taking the stress. Lâ a marît means to get married, but it can only be used when speaking of a woman, given that it translates literally as to go unto husband. Study: la fantate e je lade a marît (the girl got married); lis fantatis a son ladis a marît (the girls got married). Fûr di paîs: out of village. A person from away, if he is male, is un forest: this can refer just as much to someone from a different country as to someone from another Friulian village. It is pronounced with stress on the second syllable. In the feminine, it becomes une foreste. Vigji tells us that four women from away came to live in the village: cuatri forestis (four women from away) a son vignudis (came, have come) a stâ culì (to live here).
Note on western Friulian: Be prepared to hear fûr (out) pronounced by western speakers as four, which contains a diphthong: the ou begins as the sound of Friulian o and glides into that of u. This phenomenon affects many high-frequency words in western Friulian. For instance, central fûr (out), cûr (heart), sûr (sister), daûr (behind), al mûr (he dies) become western four, cour, sour, davour, al mour. Not all words of the sort are affected, however; for instance, dûr (hard), mûr (wall) and sigûr (sure) are used in both central and western Friulian. Note that central mûr becomes western mour only when it means dies (al mour [he dies], e mour [she dies]), not when it means wall (un mûr, i mûrs [a wall, the walls]).
La statistiche: paragraph 4, sentence 2.
Vocabulary: ce che (that which); valê (to be worth); savê (to know); dî (to say); ancjemò (yet); ator par (around); la glesie (church); viodi (to see); un sôl (just one, a single one); un altri (another); parê (to seem, to appear); un ûf (egg); fâ l'ûf (to make a baby {to get pregnant}); a pene (so soon as); rivâ (to arrive); un misteri (mystery); la nature (nature).
Vigji now tells of what he knows about the four women who have come from outside the village to live in Gargagnà. He first admits to not yet knowing much: ce che a son (what they are like) e ce che a valin (and what they are worth {and what they bring to the table}) jo no savarès a dî ancjemò (I could not say just yet). Valê is the Friulian for to be worth, for instance: chest cuadri nol vâl nuie (this painting is not worth anything, this painting is worthless); Vigji gives valê a figurative meaning, so that what these four women are worth refers to what they are made of, what they bring to the table, of what benefit they will be to Gargagnà. As for savê, this most often means to know, but it also takes on the sense of can, to be able; Vigji uses it in the present conditional: o savarès, no savarès (I could, I could not).
A new example of a contraction of indi (thereof) is now used: ator pe glesie (around the church) o 'ndi viôt une sole (I see just one of them). The contracted 'ndi equates here to of them. Say o 'ndi as though it were one word: ondi; this can be heard in the audio recording. Pe is the contraction of par and la, but not all Friulians use pe; others use pa la and par la. For instance, whereas ator pe glesie can be heard in central Friulian, be prepared to hear western speakers use ator pa la glesia. Study the present indicative of viodi (to see): o viôt (I see); tu viodis (you [singular] see); al viôt (he sees); e viôt (she sees); o viodìn (we see); o viodês (you [plural] see); a viodin (they see). Some Friulians use what sounds like jodi in place of viodi; for instance, western nissun a lu à pi jodût is equivalent to central nissun lu à plui viodût (nobody has seen him again). For information: nissun takes a double negation if it occurs after the verb, but not before it: nissun lu à plui viodût, no lu à plui viodût nissun.
Vigji then speaks of misteris di nature (mysteries of nature): it seemed to him that one of the women fell pregnant so soon as she had arrived in the village: une altre (another woman) mi pâr che (it seems to me that) e à fat l'ûf (she made a chick; she went in the family way) a pene rivade (so soon as she had arrived). Fâ l'ûf: literally, to make the egg; a colourfully rustic way of saying to get pregnant. The masculine noun ûf (egg) is pronounced as written, but its plural form ûfs sounds like ûs. In western Friulian, be prepared to hear singular ouf and plural ous. Consider: In central Friulian, nûf ûfs (nine eggs) sounds like nûf ûs, but in western Friulian, it sounds like nouf ous.
La statistiche: paragraph 4, sentence 3.
Vocabulary: lâ (to go); la scuele (school); fâ scuele (to teach school); viodi (to see); nome (only, just); a buinore (in the morning); di sere (in the evening); cuant che (when); partî (to leave); rivâ (to arrive, to come); la metraie (machine gun); la lambrete (Lambretta {scooter}); rivâ dongje (to show up); il mês (month); passât (passed, past, gone by); savê (to know); ancjemò (yet); la muse (face).
Learn the present indicative conjugation of lâ (to go): o voi (I go); tu vâs (you [singular] go); al va (he goes); e va (she goes); o lin (we go); o lais (you [plural] go); a van (they go). In Friulian, to go to school as a student is lâ a scuele, for instance: la fantate e va a scuele (the girl goes to school); but fâ scuele means to teach school, in the capacity of a teacher: la mestre e fâs scuele (the mistress teaches school). For a male teacher, Friulian employs il mestri (master); for a female teacher, la mestre (mistress) is used. Learn or review the present indicative conjugation of fâ (to do, to make): o fâs (I do); tu fasis (you [singular] do); al fâs (he does); e fâs (she does); o fasìn (we do); o fasês (you [plural] do); a fasin (they do). Vigji tells us that one of those new women in town goes to teach school: e va a fâ scuele.
Si le viôt: one sees her. To form in Friulian the equivalent of the impersonal one of English, the third-person singular form of verb is employed with si, for instance: si viôt (one sees); si à (one has); si fâs (one does); si va (one goes), and so on. A direct object, if present, can be placed in one of two positions. The first, as we find here in the words of Vigji, goes between si and the verb: si lu viôt (one sees him); si le viôt (one sees her); si ju viôt (one sees them [masculine]); si lis viôt (one sees them [feminine]). The second suffixes the direct object to the verb: si viodilu, si viodile, si viodiju, si viodilis; this causes a final t to change to d, with an insertion of i before the suffix.
Perhaps you will recall from lesson 1 that Marchet used the wording no si cjatilu (one finds it not), when speaking of the impossibility of finding Gargagnà on maps of Friûl. Know now that this can also be said: no si lu cjate. The t of cjate does not change to d when suffixing because it is not the final letter: it is buffered by the final e, which, however, must still change to i. More examples: si vent: si lu vent, si vendilu (one sells: one sells it); si spint: si lu spint, si spindilu (one spends: one spends it); si fâs: si lu fâs, si fasilu (one does: one does it); si dîs: si lu dîs, si disilu (one says: one says it); si cjape: si lu cjape, si cjapilu (one takes: one takes it); si mangje: si lu mangje, si mangjilu (one eats: one eats it); si trate: si lu trate, si tratilu (one treats: one treats it). The final t of met (puts) does not change: no si met: no si lu met, no si metilu (one puts not: one puts it not).
Nome or dome: only, just; Vigji uses both forms in his sermons. Nome a buinore e di sere: only in the morning and in the evening. In western variants of Friulian, be prepared to hear: dome di bunora e di sera. Cuant che e partìs o che e rive: when she leaves or arrives. The conjunction when is cuant che in Friulian, with che being mandatory: cuant che al rive (when he arrives); cuant che e rive (when she arrives). Che is omitted when the verb is set in the interrogative: cuant rivial? (when does he arrive?); cuant rivie? (when does she arrive?). In Vigji's words cuant che e partìs o che e rive, note that che is repeated after o, to link back to cuant. Partî (to leave) conjugates so in the present indicative: o partìs (I leave); tu partissis (you [singular] leave); al partìs (he leaves); e partìs (she leaves); o partìn (we leave); o partîs (you [plural] leave); a partissin (they leave). Cun chê metraie di lambrete: with that machine gun of a scooter. The feminine noun lambrete derives from the Italian trademark Lambretta, a brand of motor scooters.
Of the last of the new women in the village to be described by Vigji, he tells us: chê altre e je rivade dongje (the other one showed up) chest mês passât (this past month) e jo no sai ancjemò (and I do not know yet) ce muse che e à (what to make of her [literally, what face she has]). The human face is referred to in Friulian by the feminine noun muse. For instance, une muse taronde is a round face, whereas une muse scuadrade is a square face.
No comments:
Post a Comment